The Waves Sang
by ShadowWarrior85
Summary: Danny Fenton had lived his entire life on this boat. His parents were marine biologists, with special emphasis on paranormal and supernatural creatures, or at least that how they put it. The rest of the town calls them mermaid hunting freaks. Danny never believed in his parents work until... something happens that he can't explain. All he knows is that he isn't human anymore.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I never thought it would take me this long to write a DP fic. Then again, I also never thought I'd write a MerDanny fic, but well, here we are. This will (hopefully) be first Multi-chapter fic, but I am notorious for starting things and then forgetting them, so don't be afraid to remind me (Politely) to update. Enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing but a laptop, some pocket lint and my own imagination.**

 **3/11/2017: I realized that the lack of line breaks in this chapter made it really hard to read, and a lot of new people were probably getting turned off the story because of that, so I added them in to make it consistent with the chapters that follow. The rest of the text has not been altered. I considered editing it, because honestly, I feel this isn't reflective of my best work, but I kinda felt like that'd be... I dunno. Dishonest I guess? At any rate, I felt like it'd be better to leave it as is.**

It started with a storm.

The research vessal rocked and swayed, and muffled crashes from below told Danny that his parents would be needing a new set of beakers soon. He knew that he should get to his room and wait it out, as he always did, but something stopped him.

A voice. A strange, beautiful voice. It sang, loud and clear and pure, from what seemed to be everywhere at once. The waves filled with it, and the words were felt rather than heard.

'Remember, Remember, you will remember my name.'

Why was he running again? He didn't want to leave. He suddenly wondered why on earth he was up here, on deck. The Voice was in the ocean. He wanted... no he needed to be where the voice was. So naturally, he should be in the ocean too, right? Something in his head protested that that was not a good idea, but he quited it. Of course, this was a good idea. Really why hadn't he thought of it sooner? He should have just jumped in a long time ago.

He heard his parents running up the stairs, and, dimly he regestured them calling out to him, saying something about Sirens. Ughh, more of their mermaid talk, agian. When would they understand that such things weren't real? Nothing was real but the voice. Ignoring their shouts, he jumped in to the waves, heart swelling with the prospect of joining the voice.

The moment the icy water hit him, the voice went silent, and the joy bleed from his heart as quickly as it had come, terror filling the void. He struggled and kicked upward, lungs already starting to burn, eyes stinging with the salty water. But his efforts were pointless, he was in a current, and a strong one it seemed. He heard screams above, accompanied by two splashes, which he knew were his parents, though whether they had been knocked overboard or dived in after him, he did not know.

He would have to breath soon but he could not reach the surface. He was going to die here. He was going drown here becuase of some stupid voice...

There was somthing nearby. He knew it. He could feel it. It wasn't anything solid, it was... the best way to descibe it was a sort of energy. It pulsed brightly, with a greenish-silver light. Somehow Danny knew that it was alive, in fact he vaguely remembered seeing something similar in jars in his parents lab, though he could not be sure. He felt that perhaps he should try and avoid it, but it did not matter. The current was to strong, to fast to fight. His lungs were burning furiously now. He would die soon anyway.

The light was close enough to touch by the time he finally gave in, relingushing the breathe from his lungs, gasping and choking as water filled the void. Unconciousness threatened to consume him, and his last thought was that the light was doing somthing. It was going inside him, phasing into his chest, but conciousness had already left him before he could process this.

(Line Break)

It had never had a host like this before. This creature (human, it believed was the proper term) clearly did not belong here. In fact, it seemed quite unfit for life in the sea.

Well, now. That would have to change, wouldn't it? It slipped into his cells, rearranging them, making adjustments where needed. Let's see... yes. These limbs here, these legs, they'd need to go for now. Simply not practical you see. No, a tail is what the creature... the boy... needs.

Yes... just leagthen these out a bit, merge it together here and... yes, perfect.

The arms, it supposed, could stay (they would likly come in handy later), but these digits here would need some webbing.

Hmm... now for the tricky part. The lungs. What to do with the lungs. It supposed that it should keep them, the boy would likly want to go back to the surface soon. But he would not last long if he had to come up every two minutes. Hmm... wait.

It moved upward, towards the area in question. If it expanded these abit... yes! Wonderful! Now he (they, perhaps? It felt that it was a part of the boy now) could stay underwater for a good while before he needed breathe.

It felt the boy starting to come to, awareness seeping in. It made a few more adjustments before relingushing control, content to let the child take it from here.

(Line break)

Danny's eyes opened, and he surrveyed surroundings. He was still in the current, but the light was nowhere to be seen and he felt... different. Why was he alive? And... wait. Why could he see so clearly?

He tryed to swim towards the surface, and in doing so realized two things. First, that he was now strong enough to break free from the current, and secondly, that he didn't have legs anymore.

Looking down, he saw that the place where his legs ought to be was now occupied by a sleek black tail, but not the kind he normally imagined a merman would have (for he supposed that's what he must be now, though for some reason, this failed to startle him as much as it should have). This was smooth and scaless, and if he had to guess, he'd say it was that of an orca, although, seeing as he was off the coast off California, that didn't make much since. Experimentally, he gave it a flick, and found that he could propel himself easily towards the suface. Breaking the surface, he found he could still breathe normally. Still a mammal then. Good.

Spotting a rock nearby, he swam toward it, suprisingly fast. With some difficulty, he finally managed to heave himself onto it, noting that his new tail was much heavier than he anticipated.

The sun, which had been setting when he so stupidly decided to jump in (He still didn't know why he did that, but he supposed it could have been a Siren, as it seemed to fit.), Had just vanished below the horizen, meaning that he'd only been out for maybe 45 minutes or so, which he supposed wasn't that bad. The storm had vanished without a trace, and the waves were gentler now. Glancing at his reflection in the water, he saw that his messy black hair was now silvery white, and strangly dry. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that his eyes were green now, and apeared to glow in the moonlight (reflective probably. He'd seen this in seals before). His fingers had thin black webbing between them, and, upon opening his mouth, he found that his teeth were sharper now. It made sense. According to his parents, merfolk were mostly carnivores, so it followed that they'd need sharp teeth.

Wait...his parents! They'd fallen overboard hadn't they! He needed to find them, now!

Hoosting himself up as high as he could, he searched the waves for some sign of them, a glimpse of his moms red hair, or his dads orange hazmat suit. Finally he spotted them, about a hundred yards away, drifting near the shore.

It didn't take him long to reach them. They were unconcious, which he supposed was a good thing, because he'd really rather they not see him like this. Grabbing them both by the arms, he dragged them forward, determined to get them to dry land. As he swam, he made another realization. He was alot stronger now, as he was able to carry his father (who even with the bouyancy of the water, was extremly heavy) with minimal effort, a feat that he was sure very few could ever accomplish.

They were very close to shore now, and Danny soon found that the water was to shallow to swim an farther.

I wish I had legs again. I need to get them ashore, and I don't want to be this way forever.

He felt something stir in the back of his mind, and a thought drifted to the for-front, one that was most certainly not his own.

But of course.

A strange warmth rose in his chest, he felt the light from before moving through him, changing him. Tail became legs. Fins shrank and vanished. Sharp teeth dulled into somthing more human. The exprience was oddly painless, and the only evidence left afterward that he was anything more than human was the still present (Though now skin colored) webbing connecting his fingers and toes.

He stood and walked to shore, laying his parents in the sand. As he checked their pulses and made sure they were truly alright, he wondered what he would tell them when they awoke. They might think he was crazy, and even if they did believe him... their view of merpeople wasn't exactly positive. No. He couldn't tell them, not yet. Maybe some day, but not now.

Finishing his work, he sighed. His life was weird, always had been, always would be, but this...

He didn't know what he was going to do, but he knew one thing. His life, his very exsistance, had just changed forever.

 **A/N: Well, there ya go. Let me know what you thought (REVIEWS GIVE ME LIFE) and let me know if there's anything you didn't get, or if there's a mistake somewhere that I didn't see.**

 **Flamers shall be locked in a room with the box ghost and forced to listen to him monologue for the rest of their days.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: You'll notice I've changed the cover pic. I thought it would be a waste of time to try and describe every little detail about Danny's appearance, so I drew this to give you a general idea.**

 **I'm sorry for the lack of linebreaks in the last chapter. I specifically remember putting them in, but they wouldn't show up for some reason. To remedy this, I've had to resort to simply writing, "Line Break". I know it's a bit lame, but I'm afraid it's the best I can do right now.**

The Coast Gaurd found them , about a mile or so from where their boat was anchored. When they got back, they were pleased to find that the ship had suffered little damage, other than a few smashed beakers.

His parents had a million questions, but Jazz shooed them off, going on a rant about child psychology. Danny was thankful to be alone. He knew he'd get a scolding in the morning for listening to the Siren (He'd decided that's what it had been.), but he was more concerned with what had happened to him.

From what his parents had told him, Merpeople were only able to change into human form during blue moons or eclipses, and neither of those things had happened when he changed. So... what exactly was he? He wasn't exactly human anymore, but he didn't seem to be entirely Mer either. So maybe... he was half and half? Or something else entirely?

And that led to the question of how he'd become like this in the first place. The light he'd seen must have had something to do with it. When he'd changed, He'd felt it. He'd heard it. So it wasn't just alive, it was sentient.

He resolved to visit his parent's lab later, to see if he could find out more.

 **(Line break)**

Danny Fenton had always been an outcast at school. No one wanted anything to do with the weird kid that lived on a boat with mermaid obsessed parents. Well, almost no one. Sam Manson and Tucker Foley had been his best friends since kidergarden, and they knew better than anyone else. Maybe a little too well actually...

"Spill it."

Danny turned from his locker to look at his best friends, twin smirks across their faces.

"Spill what?"

"The thing you're not telling us, dude." was Tucker's reply.

Danny sighed, knowing that he wasn't getting out of this. "Is it really that obvious?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, triumph doned Sam's features. "Aha! So you admit it!"

Danny had known he wouldn't be able to keep this from them, but he'd hoped he wouldn't have to tell them this soon.

"Well... I... Ummm..."

"Well?"

"I don't think you'd believe me if I told you."

"Try us."

Damn, they were persistent. "Ok fine. But not now. Later. After school. Meet me in the grotto around four."

Satisfied, they walked off to their next class, leaving Danny to wonder how exactly to tell them what had happened.

 **(Line Break)**

Sam was the one who had first discovered the grotto. They'd been around seven, and had playing frisbee on the beach. Tucker had thrown the disk to hard, and Sam went to go find it. When she came back, she brought them to a cave she'd found.

Danny smiled as he remembered the gap-toothed, pigtailed young Sam running torwards them, shouting "You guys gotta thee this! It's amathing!"

They'd named the cave the grotto (A word they'd only known at the time because they'd seen the little mermaid recently.), and had been meeting there ever since.

Danny looked up, and saw that while he was daydreaming, he'd reached his destination. Scaling the rocks he knew so well by now, he slide down to the entrance only he and his friends knew about. Brushing aside the hanging ivy that covered the gap, he found that his friends were already there, sitting in the sand on the opposite side of the cave, across the shallow pool that lay in the middle of the enclosure.

Reaching them, he sat down, nervously shifting as the put away the game of Russian Rummy they'd been playing.

Sam spoke first, not even mentioning the fact that he'd been late, opting instead to cut right to the chase. " Soo... ya gonna tell us why you've been acting so weird today or not?"

"Ok... but you have to promise not to laugh when I tell you. Or tell me that I'm crazy."

The both nodded fervently and gestured for him to go on.

"Ok... well you remember the storm last night..."

(Line Break)

"...And then there was the weird light thing and I changed back to how I am now."

For a split second after he finished, they just stared and he felt sure they thought he was insane.

Tucker was the one that spoke first. "Holy crap dude... that's like, intense."

Sam piped up next. " But how did it happen? I've read tons of legends about merpeople but none of them mentioned any sort of light like that. "

Pretty soon the two were chattering away a million miles a minute, but Danny wasn't really listening.

They believed him. Praise god, they believed him.

"... Danny, do you think you can show us?" Sam said.

The boy blinked "What?"

"Can you show us you're mer form?" She repeated. "It might give us a better idea of what exactly happened to you."

"Oh... umm... ok."

He waded into the water, paddling out until the pool was deep enough to tread water, but making sure his friends could still see. It hit him suddenly that he wasn't entirely sure how to do this. Last time, he'd just sort of wanted to be human and the light had answered him. Maybe it would work in reverse? He gave it a try.

 _Umm... light? C-can you make me a merman again?_

He waited. He was just about to try again when he felt the presence in the back of his thoughts laugh. It was a happy, good natured laugh.

 _Of course. All you have to do is ask._

He felt a sort of tingle sweeping over him, and he watched beneath the clear water as his legs lengthened and merged. When the tranformation was over, he looked himself over, noticing some things he hadn't really gotten a good look at before. There were shark like fins on his arms, and, reaching around to his back, he felt a similar one there as well.

Looking over he saw that Tucker was having some kind of nerdy spaz-attack. "Dude... You look so cool! This is just like in Level 20 of Doomed: Unlimited , where you get the aqua scepter powerup and upgrade to water spirit status!"

This earned an eye roll from Sam. "Can we please focus here? And FYI, that was Level 18, not Level 20."

"Nuh-uh! I remember, it was 20! 18 was that lame city level!"

Danny knew them well enough to know that an argument was brewing, and that if he didn't nip this in the bud, they'd be there all day. "Uhh.. Guys?"

"Nooo, You're thinking of Doomed: Ultimate. The aqua scepter wasn't even in that game!"

"Guys?"

"Pfft... Please Sam! I know my video games. It was definitely Unlimited level 20!"

"Guys."

"As if! It was level 18! I know it was! Check the manual if you don't..."

"GUYS!" Danny had had enough. He knew he shouldn't be so cross with them, but he couldn't help it. He felt like he was going to boil over, like he was...

He looked over and Sam and Tucker to find that there jaws were completely slack.

Tucker snapped out of it first. "Dude... you're.. you're GLOWING!"

Danny looked a his hands to find that he was indeed emitting a neon greenish aura. His anger gave way to surprise, and the glow changed, fading in color, (but not intensity) becoming a paler blue green hue.

Sam and Tucker were still staring, transfixed.

"It... it looks like its connected to his emotions based on color." Sam said.

An idea struck him. Experimentally, he closed his eyes, envisioning the energy focusing in his hands.

Upon opening his eyes, he saw that the aura around the rest of his body was fading, concentrated in his hands. Pointing at a nearby pebble, he imagined the energy leaving him, flowing out of his hand, into the air around him. After a moment, it did, firing outwards in a beam that shattered the rock to dust.

"Dude. That. Was. Awesome! How'd you do that?"

"I'm not sure. I just sort of did it, I guess."

They stood there in silence for a moment.

It was Tucker who broke them from their reverie. "Guys, we better go. It's past sunset. My parents are gonna be looking for me."

"Oh my god your right! I promised Mom and Dad I'd be back by eight!" Danny said. Swimming towards the shore, he reached out to the light. He didn't have to say anything this time. It knew what he wanted.

When the change was over, he waded back to the strip of sand at the edge of the cave. Grabbing his bag, he bid his friends goodbye, making plans to meet again the next day.

 **(Line Break)**

That was... interesting. He wasn't entirely sure what that glow had been. He'd heard legends of merpeople having a type of magic, but his parents had always scoffed at the idea. Maybe they were wrong? They'd also thought it impossible for humans to become mermen. Look how that turned out.

The waves lapped peacefully against the beach as he walked home, glimmering stars reflected in it's depths. Something in him longed to be out there, probably the merman part.

Glancing at his watch, he saw that he had about 15 minutes before 8:00.

A grin spread across his face. Maybe he'd just go for a quick swim...

 **(Line Break)**

It was past ten when he remembered his curfew.

Letting the change come over him once more, he gathered his things and raced home, hoping to slip into his room without his parents notice.

He'd expected yelling, or at the very least a firm scolding. Instead, his parents were wearing grins a mile wide when they bumped into him.

His father was holding a digital camera, and was waving it around like it was a winning lottery ticket.

"Danny-Boy! Look what we've got!" He said, as he thrust the camera at him.

Curious as to what was on it that had made his parents this ecstatic, he began to look through it. There were only a few pictures, all of which seemed to have been taken within the last 2 hours. Opening the picture library, he froze.

"Is that..."

His father grinned even wider, unaware of his son's distress. "See. I told you they were real. And now we've got pictures to prove it!"

The pictures were blurry and at a distance, but he knew who was in them. It was him. His parents had seen him in his mer-form.

Shit.

This wasn't gonna end well.

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I wouldn't be able to keep going without you guys.**

 **I'm sorry if this chapter seemed a little slow compared to the first. I'd love to cut straight to the action, but I felt I should include this for the sake of character development, and also to expand upon Danny's powers.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I live! I'm really, really sorry for the hiatus. See, to be honest the first to chapters were kinda a spur of the moment thing, and I only had a vague idea where I wanted to go with it. And then I started writing this chapter and realized, "Wait, crap, what's my endgame here?". So I ended up with one hell of a writer's block, and then just kept putting of writing because of that. But, I have an outline now and I've been making sure to write at least a little everyday, so chapters should be a bit more regular from now on.**

Danny's head ached, as it always did whenever he didn't get enough sleep. His eyes fluttered open to the familiar sight of the cheap plastic stars on his ceiling. Blinding sunlight poured in through the window and only worsened his head ache. He groaned and pulled the covers back over his head. He was hot and sweaty in the glaring sunlight, and the sheets stuck to him, but he didn't want to get up.

He'd been up all night. Of course he had. How could anyone sleep after something like that? He'd only just gotten these powers, and his cover was about to be blown, all because he was an idiot who'd wanted to go for a midnight swim. And of course, he'd started glowing again, which had only made matters worse. Without the burst of wonder that he'd felt the first time, there was nothing to take his mind off his feelings and get his powers under control. The fact that he'd managed to sleep at all was an absolute miracle.

But all the same,even half conscious, the worries of the past night started to come back. It wasn't the same consuming panic, but a dull aching dread. He didn't want to get out of bed. He didn't want to face his parents. If he just stayed like this, he wouldn't have to deal with any of it. He could just pretend none of it had happened. He could...

There were several hard raps at the door

"Danny! Wake up! It's Past Ten!" Came his mother's voice.

Of course. Who was he kidding?

"I'm up. I'm up." He mumbled.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he glanced at himself in the mirror. His black hair was ruffled every which way, and purplish bags were visible under his crystal blue eyes, further evidence of how little sleep he'd gotten the previous night.

Forcing himself to get up, he slipped on his favorite shirt and jean shorts, and made his way to the ships kitchen.

Making his way to the kitchen, he dimly hoped that his parents would leave him alone. Of course, he had no such luck.

Immediately upon entering, his mother turned to greet him.

"Hi Sweetie!" She said, blissfully unaware of what her son was going through.

Danny forced a smile, though it didn't reach his eyes. He was glad that his parents were so in there own world that they didn't notice his unease.

The kitchen table was barely visible, covered in a mass of papers, sketches and notes. His father sat at his usual spot, scribbling away at his notebook. Occasionally, he'd mutter something like "Our biggest breakthrough yet!" or "Who's crazy now!?". The sight only served to deepen Danny's despair.

Perching his plate on a small section of uncovered table, he sat down, trying not to look and the many pictures and sketches of himself lining the table. He ate quickly trying, in the hopes of being able to leave before his father noticed him. Unfortunately, Luck had apparently decided it hated him.

He was half out the door when Jack looked up. "Hey Danny-boy where you goin'?" He said, grinning cheerfully.

"I... umm... promised Tucker and Sam I'd meet them at the beach." He said. It was the truth, but he felt as though he was lying.

His parents glanced at each other, in the way that all parents do when they have bad news.

Maddie spoke up first. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry. It's just, we're not really comfortable with you leaving the house right now, what with a mer on the lose and all. And what with... what happened during the storm..."

"I'll be fine mom! I'm not a baby!" He said, perhaps just a bit to harshly. He still felt like an idiot for flinging himself over the side of the boat like that, magic or no.

"Son, we don't doubt that you can take care of yourself, but this is different." Jack said firmly. "So for now, your just going to have to call and tell them you can't make it."

"But I just... I gotta..."

"No buts." Maddie interjected. "It's just not worth it. " Seeing how dejected her son looked, she added, "But if your bored, we can show you what we've been working on."

Danny considered. On one hand, this thing was probably pretty dangerous to him now. But then all the more reason to go see it right? Know what it is and how to avoid it? And, it wasn't like he wasn't curious.

"Uh.. Yeah sure ok."

Jack's face lit up like a little kid at Christmas. Danny almost never showed interest in their inventions, so this was a rare occasion. Maddie seemed to feel the same, though she was more composed about it.

They headed down the stairs from the kitchen to the basement. With each step, it became more and more apparent that this was a horrible idea. But he couldn't leave now, that would just be insanely suspicious. So he just kept walking.

The Lab was rich with the smell of chemicals and salt water, and illuminated with a soft greenish light. The left half of the room, the side he was entering from, was the work area. Metal worktables up against the wall, scattered with half-formed inventions and spare parts. The right side was the storage area. Rows and rows of shelves housing half-forgotten blueprints, and various contraptions that hadn't really worked in years. There used to be jars with specimens in them, but they'd since been removed.

He knew all of this from memory. He'd been down here enough to know where everything was, even though he wasn't actually looking at any of them. His eyes were immediately drawn to a large, unfinished fixture in the center of the work area. A large steel frame indicated the beginnings of a sort of holding tank, with various wires and tubes poking out from the edges.

His stomach lurched a little. He felt like he ought to ask what the machine was for, but he already knew.

As if the machines purpose wasn't already obvious, Jack launched into explanation, in his usual enthusiastic manner.

"We've been planning this thing for years, but never had much motivation to actually build it 'til now. I mean, what good's a holding tank without something but in it?!" He said. His grin was a mile wide.

"But now that we finally have some solid evidence that their are mers in the area, we figured it was finally time to get to work on it, so we'll have ready for when we catch one." Maddie added.

"You built this in one night?"

"Well I mean most of it. We've been tinkering with it off and on for a while now, but only really got serious now. But it's nowhere near finished." She said.

"Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff we still need to add, like a heater and cooler so we can see how it reacts to temperature. That was your mothers idea. I wanted to jump straight to the dissection, but she thought we oughta do some tests first, like blood samples and..."

"Wait, Dissection?!" Danny exclaimed, his voice cracking a little.

Jack looked at his son, a bit confused by his reaction, but shrugged it off.

"Well, yeah. It's a once in a life time chance after all, and it'll finally get our work recognized. And you know how awful they are. We'd be doin' the world a favor to thin 'em out a little."

Danny's breath hitched. Jack went on, talking about how good this would be for the family business. Every word only served to send Danny deeper into shock.

Monster. Slay. Thin out. Evil. Eradicate. Words like these echoed in his head. A reminder of how his parents saw mers, saw him. If the found out what he was, would they even see him as their son anymore? He'd hoped the answer would be yes, but he couldn't be sure now.

His heart beat in his throat, heat rising to his face. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he prayed to god that his panic wasn't as visible as he thought it was. He was wrong.

"Oh my God, Sweetie are you ok?" Maddie cried.

Danny barely registered the question. His head was spinning, and his face was still flushed with heat.

My parents want to kill me. My parents want to kill me. It was as if his thoughts had been set to loop that one phrase over and over, each repetition more urgent than the last.

His knees buckled, suddenly unable to support his weight. He felt his father moving forward to support him. Looking back on this years later, he decided that it must have been around this time that he blacked out, as he didn't remember anything after that.

 **(Line break)**

Danny's eyes flitted open, and as he slowly drifted back to consciousness, he was struck with the realization he was not in his bed, but on the living room couch. Even in his half-awake state, he registered that this was odd. He rarely fell asleep on the couch, unless he was sick, or the power was out. After a few minutes of quite pondering, he sluggishly pushed himself up, allowing some of the afghan covering him to slip off onto the floor. Slowly, his memories were creeping back, and he began to piece together what must have happened.

He sat up, kicking off the rest of the blanket. Carefully, he stood and looked around. Glancing at the wall clock, he saw that it was about 2:30.

Walking some what aimlessly around, he discovered that his parents were not in the main living quarters, and his sister was locked up in her room studying, as she always was on the weekends. 'Good' he thought. He was not in the mood to talk to anyone right now least of all his parents.

He wandered around aimlessly like that for a good ten minutes. Somehow, he kept finding himself standing in front of the lab door. He knew it ought to be the last place he wanted to go right now, yet he felt drawn to it, like he needed to go there. Finally, he gave in. Pushing the door open just a crack, he peered down the stairs. His parents had a habit of being rather noisy as they worked, so he could always tell whether or not they were there. Dead silence. 'They must be on deck.' he thought.

Slowly, he made his way down the steps. The beginnings of the tank were still there, of course, but he tried not to look at them. He figured it if he didn't pay attention to it, he wouldn't have to think about what it meant.

He wandered around, uncertain of what exactly he was looking for. He found himself in front of the storage shelves, and for the heck of it, started looking over their contents. Some of the shelves were cluttered with old inventions and scrap parts, a few notebooks shoved in where ever they would fit. Other shelves were obsessively neat, books arranged just so, papers tucked away cleanly in folders, Inventions labeled with names and dates. In wasn't hard to guess which parent had organized which.

Straying a little further down the line, he found nothing real note. Lots of scrap parts, and a few inventions he should probably avoid from now on, though none particularly threatening. While examining a pair of contraptions that looked a lot like Bluetooth earpieces, he began to get the odd sensation that he wasn't alone. Looking around, he found himself facing the darkest corner of the storage area, where the oldest inventions were kept. The light there had gone out long ago, and no one had bothered to change it. He might not have seen anything in the light, but in that shadowy corner, he could see something glowing. Something... alive.

There was a gentle tug in the back of his mind, almost as if the light was leaning forward to get a better look. He walked towards the corner slowly, utterly fascinated. He bent down, until he was eye level with whatever it was. He found himself looking into a dusty mason jar. A small light bobbed around inside, like the light of an angler fish, but it wasn't attached to anything. It was just like his light (he really ought to think of a better name than that), but dimmer. Like it was dying. It seemed to sense him somehow, drifted forward in the jar, until it was right up against the glass. Something shifted in the back of his mind, and he knew that the light wanted to get closer to its... friend? Cousin? He didn't know what to call it, but they were clearly the same species, so they at least had that relation.

Danny reached out to put his hand against the jar. In retrospect, he wasn't quite sure what he'd thought that'd accomplish, but at the time it'd seemed like the right thing to do. All he knew was that he felt a strange compassion for this creature. It was dying and he needed to help it. He needed to...

"DANNY GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!"

He jolted back startled. The light retreated to the corner of its jar, like a frightened animal.

Before he could even register what happened, his mother had grabbed him by the shoulders and was hurriedly looking him over for signs of injury. His father hovered over her shoulder equally worried.

"What were you thinking, approaching that thing? It wasn't even in one of the safety jars! It could have attacked you!" Maddie exclaimed after she was satisfied that he was alright.

"Oh god, I thought we'd gotten rid of all those! We must of missed that one. Oh god this is all my fault." Jack muttered, head in his hands.

"Honey do you even know how worried we were?! First you faint, and then when we come to check on you you're gone!" Maddie exclaimed, though she didn't sound angry anymore. Her voice was panicked and desperate.

"You could have ended up like..." Jack started, but trailed off, realizing what he'd said.

Up until now, Danny had been to confused to take anything in, but this phrase caught his attention. "Like who?" He asked, perhaps against his better judgment.

Jack and Maddie shared a nervous glance. "Well...umm..." Jack started, after a few moments of silence.

"It's nothing sweetie. Forget we brought it up. Just please, please don't go near one of those things again. Promise me that."

"Ok, I promise." He said, Though he knew it was a promise he wouldn't be able to keep. He'd already broken it after all.

Danny trailed behind his parents as they went up the stairs. He was still reeling a bit from everything that had happened.

He hoped he could just slip of to his room unnoticed, but of course it just couldn't be that easy.

Just as he started to leave the kitchen, his mother stopped him.

"Danny are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Are you positive? You passed out. Maybe we should see a doctor..."

"No! I mean... It's okay. I feel fine. I just fainted. Sometimes people just faint for no reason."

Maddie raises an eyebrow. This doesn't seem to ease her mind much, but nonetheless, she backs off.

"Well alright. If you feel like you're okay, then I'm sure it's probably fine. But let us know if you start to get dizzy or anything alright?"

"Yeah, sure, alright." Danny replied, though he was already halfway to his room, and was very clearly not listening. "I need to go call Sam and Tucker and let them know why I wasn't there today."

"Oh, of course." Maddie said, a little bewildered by her son's behavior.

"Oh but, Danny?" she added, as Danny was about to close the door.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe you should stay home tomorrow too. After everything that's happened, it's probably better to be safe than sorry."

"Yeah. Ok. Sure."

 **A/N: As a side note, this chapter also took a bit because I actually put in the time to edit it, which I didn't do for the first two. I'll probably go back and edit them later since I feel like the could be better, but that will take time away from the rest of the story, so I probably won't do that until it's finished.**


	4. Chapter 4

It was a week before Danny's parents lifted the curfew. He stayed in human form for the entirety of that time. It was awful, like having an itch you couldn't scratch. He wasn't sure if it was a need or want but nothing would have made him happier than being a mer again. But he knew he couldn't risk it. So he waited.

And finally, the next Saturday, his parents told him he could go see his friends if he wanted. As he walked down the shore to the grotto, he had half a mind to jump in the water right then and there. But of course, he didn't. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

But that's the whole reason they were meeting at the grotto, so he could swim without anyone seeing him. That thought in mind, he picked up his pace. As he got closer, he felt an odd sensation, like something out of the ordinary was going to happen. It was familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

When he got there, he found Sam and Tucker were already there, peering into the entrance tentatively. They looked a little like they'd seen a ghost.

"What are you guys looking at?" He said, a bit too loudly.

They immediately shushed him. Peer through the vines, he soon saw why.

The grotto was covered in boxes. Cardboard ones, piled on the edges of the shore. Wooden crates floating in the water. Some small wooden trunks perched atop rocks like collectors items. But that wasn't the thing that drew his attention the most. That honor went to the plump figure, asleep on a rock near the edge of the pool. It was a squat little man, in what may have once been a delivery man's uniform. His skin was a bluish and ashy, and the place were his legs ought to be was occupied by a scaly blue fish tail.

Danny's eyes widened a little. He'd never seen another merman before, though he'd assumed they existed.

"Wow." he mouthed.

"We don't know how to get rid of him." Tucker mouthed back, from the other side of the entrance.

Just then, the figure began to stir. Blearily, it opened one eye and surveyed the area. It seemed to know something was off.

"Who's there?" He bellowed, trying to sound intimidating. He came off as more annoying than anything else.

They pressed closer to the sides of the entrance. Danny didn't know how he was supposed to handle this. This thing had just taken up residence and didn't seem to wanna move. How was he supposed to get rid of him without a fight? And what was this weirdo's thing with boxes?

The chubby mer squinted, as if trying to see through the walls. "Come out, humans! I know that you are there!" He cried. God, this guy has no concept of an inside voice.

"What should we do?" Danny mouthed.

"I don't know." Sam whispered in reply.

"I CAN HEAR YOU BACK THERE!" The box mer cried.

Tucker was the first to act. Slowly, he stepped out, hands up, to where the thing could see him.

Sam hesitated but followed suit. The thing glared at them the whole time, probably thinking he looked rather intimidating, but he looked more like a petulant child than anything else.

Danny paused, not knowing what to expect. Finally, he gathered his courage and edged out, just enough that the thing could see him and vice versa. Seeing that the mer made no move to attack him, he stepped out fully into veiw.

The thing stared at them for a moment, unblinking, with it's beady black eyes flitting to and fro over each of them. Danny swore that it looked at him longer than the others, but it was likely just his imagination.

Then, to their dismay, he turned around and began fiddling with his boxes, as if they weren't even there. They stood there a moment, flabbergasted. After a few minutes, Tucker huffed and started to walk away. He'd barely gotten a step before a small cardboard box grazed the side of his cheek. Turning, he saw the creatures eyes were pinned on him, staring him down like a rather fat vulture.

"Uhh..."

The thing glanced pointedly at the ground where Tucker had been standing, then back up at him.

Taken off guard, he hesitated. Finally, he came and stood where the Box mer had indicated. The creature gave a quick sharp nod, and returned to what he had been doing.

They stood there, utterly lost for words. Finally, after a long period where no one dared to do anything, Sam, who had always been the bravest, spoke up. "Umm... Sir... Not to be impolite, but this is kind of our cave, and we sort of need you to leave..."

That got the creatures attention. Danny was surprised the thing didn't get whiplash with how quickly he turned around. "NEVER! I am the Box mer! And I have claimed this cave as sanctuary for my collection! It is you who must leave!"

A faint bluish glow appeared around a battered wooden crate in the center of the pool, and it rose from the water and hurl itself at them, as if thrown by a catapult.

The three of them scattered, and the box flew out the entrance, tumbling harmlessly onto the sand outside. Instantly, three more boxes hurtled toward each of them.

"You can not run from me!" The Box keeper yelled.

Danny ran frantically, in a most ungraceful manner, tripping over his own feet. A rather heavy trunk slammed into the wall just a inches to the left his head. Looking over to the other side of the cave, he saw tucker in a similar predicament, dodging a plastic milk crate.

Sam on the other hand, had taken a more active approach, standing her ground and using a large branch to fend off the onslaught of boxes. This got the creatures attention. He seized lobbing boxes at the other two and focused his efforts solely on her. Danny couldn't help but admire Sam's coordination, as he himself had never had much skill in sports.

Nonetheless, the box keeper didn't seem to appreciate her abilities at all. He seemed even angrier now, huffing and puffing as though he might explode. Every box in the room floated upward all at once, and in an instant flung themselves forward, directly toward Sam. Even with her athletic abilities, she found herself unable to fight them all of.

Dropping her branch, she jumped behind a nearby rock just in time. At least a dozen boxes slammed against the wall, right where her head had been. Many of them were cardboard, and did little damage, but some of them were wooden or plastic, and could have made quite an impact.

The barrage of boxes continued for a few seconds before the Chubby Mer realized his target was no longer there. Seething, he whirled left and right before spotting her top knot peeking out from behind her hiding place. Immediately he redirected the boxes, and threw them all at the rock. Sam tried to make herself as small as possible, shrinking down to avoid the attack.

Danny, realizing that the Box keeper wasn't paying any attention to him, tiptoed his way around the edge of the cave, until he was right behind the creature. Wading into the water, he let the change come over him. He sunk into the shallow water slowly, afraid to make too much noise. He swam forward, agonizingly slow, til he was directly behind the creature. Feeling around in the wet sand, he managed to find a large bit of drift wood. The Box mer still hadn't noticed him. He drew himself up to full height, rose the driftwood above his head like a club, and swung with his might, which...

...wasn't much. It would probably smart later, but that did nothing for him right now. At least Sam was safe. The box mer whirled around, almost looking intimating for a moment. But as soon as he saw Danny, his eyes widened like saucers. He stumbled backward surprised, falling of his rock in the process.

"Where... where did you come from?" he said. "Where did the other human go?"

"I-i'm right here?" Danny replied.

The box Mer looked at him with a look of absolute bewilderment. It took Danny a second to realize why, and when he did he felt like an idiot. Of course, he was an entirely different species for crying out loud.

The creature looked had him, puzzled over what he'd said, until something seemed to click in his head. His jaw went slack. "You're... You're a Halfa!"

"A What?"

The thing didn't seem to hear him. "B-but I thought there was only one!"

"Wait, there's another person like me!?"

"I-I have to tell everyone Else!"

"Wait everyone else? What are you talking about? You still haven't-" At the moment, the creature disappeared in the waves.

"-answered my question." he finished, a little defeated.

By this point, Sam had emerged from her hiding place. They all stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure how to process what just occurred.

"Well. Uh... that happened." Tucker said, finally.

"Hey Danny you OK?" Said Sam. He hadn't moved.

"Yeah. I guess."

Sam nodded. Danny knew that she didn't believe him, but she was willing to let him tell them in his own time. They picked up the boxes, and piled them near the entrance, in the hopes that if the Box mer came back, it'd be appeased to find them unharmed. They didn't see much point in staying after that. They walked to Danny's house, since it was closest, and they had some time to kill anyways.

As they walked, sam and tucker kept glancing over at him. Finally, sam spoke up.

"Hey Danny, you've been really quite. You sure you're OK?"

"Yeah. I.. I just... Did you hear what he said? 'I thought there was only one'. Then... there's someone else..."

Tucker and Sam exchanged a look.

"I Don't Know dude... maybe we shouldn't get our hopes up. This guy could live, like, on the other side of the planet."

"Yeah, but even then, I wouldn't be alone! I just... I don't know. It'd be great, just knowing there's some one else."

"OK, but how would you even find this guy?" Sam said. "We're talking a needle in a haystack here!"

"Maybe... Maybe Not." Danny replied.

His friends shot him a questioning look.

He Elaborated. " My parents said something the other day, that was kinda weird. It's a stretch, but... Maybe they know something?"

They hesitated.

"Guys... Please. I just... I need to know. Just help me look OK? I gotta know for sure..."

A pause. "Alright. I'll help." Tucker said, after a minute.

"I guess if Tucker's in, So am I."

They suddenly found themselves in a bear hug. "Thank You. This... This really does mean a lot to me."

"Don't mention it dude."

 **(Line Break)**

They'd been at this for hours. Rummaging through his parents study, looking for something, anything. The usually stocked shelves had been stripped bare, unleashing clouds of dust so thick they actually had to open a window. Even now, little particles sparkled in the light, like pixie dust.

They read every book, perused every file, every pamphlet. Nothing. The books were mostly useless, either only listing the mythology of mermaids, or being purely hypothetical rambling. Nothing actually solid on mers, much less half mers.

"Ugh... This is ridiculous." Sam said, slamming shut the book she was holding. "Doesn't anybody know what the hell their talking about?"

Danny rubbed his eyes. "I know. This is stupid. Maybe I was wrong."

"Hey, whats this?" Tucker said suddenly.

Danny and Sam turned to see what he was looking at. He was crouching down, pointing at something under the book shelf.

Bending down, They saw what he was looking at. A Dark rectangular shape, pushed up agianst the wall. Reaching into the small space, Sam retrieved the object, a brown, leather bound Book , caked in dust.

"It must have fallen under here or something." She said.

She swiped at the cover with her hand, releasing a fresh cloud of dust.

The two boys coughed and fanned the air with their hands until the dust settled.

The Book was small and neat despite the dust and old fashioned design, looked brand new. Whoever owned it took good care of it.

Sam turned it around in her hands, searching for a title or author name. "There nothing on it. No author, nothing. Nothing to even say what it's about."

"Well, it wouldn't be here if it didn't have something a least a little interesting in it. We might as well open it." Tucker said, yawning a little.

Sam nodded and opened it, flipping through it briefly. "Looks like a Journal or something. There's no name though. Hey Danny, do think this might be your mom or dad's?"

Danny leaned over, glancing briefly at the pages. "I don't think so. It's too nice to be dad's handwriting, and too plain to be mom's."

Sam paged through it. She glance up at him. "Hey, were your parents in, like, a marine biology club in college?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

She gesture at the book, and motioned for him the come take a look. He looked where she was pointing. Sure enough, there were his parents names. He scanned the page. It seemed that the person writing it had known his parents. Sam handed it to him, and he began skimming it.

It was something of a cross between a personal dairy and a Scientists notebook. It would talk about the authors daily life on some pages, but other pages included sketches and anatomical studies of various sea creatures. The dates at the top of the pages tended to be weeks or even months apart, giving the impression of a person who often forgot they had a diary.

He ruffled through it, looking for something interesting. One of the pages caught his eye, and he stopped to read. It had a pencil sketch of a glowing orb-like thing. Danny's eyes widened.

He began to read aloud. "Today, Maddie found a most unusual specimen in a tide pool. It appeared to be a glowing orb, with no real discernible body, yet it moved and reacted as if alive. At first, I thought this may have simply been an illusion. Some natural phenomena which we mistook for a living being. However, when we removed it from the water, it did not dissipate. I am becoming convinced that we have stumbled upon a truly earth-shattering discovery, but I feel that we must study it more in depth before drawing any conclusions."

Danny flipped hurriedly to the next page, hoping for more. It was dated 6 months after the previous one. He scanned the page, and his breath caught in his throat.

"Dear Dairy, I know that I have not written in a very long time, but given the circumstances, I had no choice. I've just been released from the hospital. If I recall, my last entry was in regards to the strange creature found in the tide pool. We went to examine the Light as we dubbed it a few days after I wrote that entry. Unfortunately, there was... an accident. The light, whatever it was, was not securely contained and... phased into me. Shortly afterward, I developed a mysterious illness that the doctors could not identify. The symptoms just now quieted down, and the doctor's a finally satisfied that I'm not contagious. I feel perfectly healthy now, except... I feel odd. Trapped. I don't feel quite right indoors, I think I may be developing some minor claustrophobia. I've been spending a lot of time outdoors, and I feel a bit better out there. But somethings missing. I think it might be that I miss the beach. I intend to go there soon, but it does quite seem soon enough."

The three teens looked up at each other, mouths agape. No one spoke, but they all knew; they'd found their guy.

Danny turned the page frantically, deathly afraid that the rest might be empty. Luckily, It wasn't. It went one for many pages after that. He scanned them quickly, and his eyes widened.

He couldn't believe his luck. Not only had this person not stopped writing, they had documented everything about being half-mer, in great detail. He'd have to read through all this later.

Danny looked up thoughtfully. "But... how'd this get here? And who wrote it? How do we find them?"

No one answered. None of them had any idea where to go from here.

Danny sighed and shut the book, stowing it away to pour over later.

Tucker was staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Hey Danny, around what year did you parent go to College?"

"Early 80's I think. Why?"

"I think a unidentified disease would probably make the news. If I do a quick web search, I might be able to find out more about this guy."

Danny lit up a little. "Good Idea. I should have thought of that."

At that moment, Sam's phone rang. She flipped it open, and groaned when she saw the caller ID.

"Hey Mom." She said, unenthusiastically. Danny could hear muffle chattering from the other end, and Sam held the phone out and winced a little. "Yeah sorry. Yes I do know how late it is, but I was helping Danny with... a project. Yeah for school. Yeah, I'll head that way now."

She snapped the phone shut and sighed. "I gotta go you guys. Mom's gonna have a conniption if I'm not home like, yesterday."

"Yeah, I oughta go too. But I'll keep you posted if I find anything."

They left, and only after they were out the door, did Danny realize he'd have to clean up by himself. Surveying the damage, he groaned and buried his head in his hands. This was gonna take a while.

 **(LineBreak)**

He'd been at it for a while, and the book shelf was just starting to look full again, when there came a knock on the door. Hastily, he grabbed the dairy off the shelf and tucked it under the desk. The door swung open, and Jazz peeked in.

"Hey Danny, Ya need some help?"

He started to say no, but decided against it. He could actually use some help, and they'd get it done faster together. As long as he kept her away from the diary, it would be fine. "Yeah sure."

She looked a little surprised, having expected him to shoot down her offer. Nonetheless, she seems pleased. She got to work immediately, arranging books neatly, and organizing them based on subject. They worked in silence for a few minutes, and for a moment, Danny was glad she was helping. This sentiment did not last long.

"Danny, are you feeling OK?" She inquired.

Crap. He knew Jazz well enough to know where this was headed. It's ok. Act casual. Don't get defensive, that'll make it worse. "Yeah. Of course, why?"

"Mom and Dad told me about how you fainted. I just wanted to make sure you were feeling well is all."

Danny knew full well that was not all, but He didn't let on to it. "Oh that? That was a week ago, I'm fine now."

"I just thought I oughta make sure. You've never fainted before and I was worried it might be a part of a bigger issue."

Oh boy here we go. " I'm not sick or anything, if that's what you thought. "

"It's not really that, I just... You've been different lately. Ever since the... incident."

Oh shit. "I feel the same as always."

She didn't seem to buy it. "Are you sure? You seem really stressed out lately."

Shit, shit, shit! "I've had a lot of schoolwork lately. It's not much of a problem. I can handle it."

Jazz was quiet. She clearly didn't buy it, but she didn't say anything either. That almost made him more uncomfortable. It stayed that way for a while. They were nearly done by the time she spoke again.

"Danny? You know you can talk to me about anything right?"

Danny was a little startled by that. "Yeah. I know."

"And I mean anything, like really anything, no matter how stupid or unbelievable you think it might be. I'm here for you, OK?"

"OK." He said, in the hopes it would get her to leave. For once it seemed to work.

She placed the last book on the shelf, and straightened up. She smiled at their work. "There. Like nothing happened."

She stretched, yawning as she did so. "Welp, I'm going to bed. See ya tomorrow." Danny automatically returned the sentiment, and She left. Danny peeked around to corner, to make sure she really was gone.

Seeing she really had gone to bed, he retrieved the dairy from its hiding place, and made his way to his room. Even unfinished, there was a lot of the diary he hadn't read. He doubted he'd be going to bed anytime soon.


End file.
